A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

At no time in my undergraduate English and American literature studies or in my entire public school
education had any teacher ever used or even mentioned a work of fiction or poetry by an Asian American
writer. At age eighteen, I had just started to write when one day I realized I was the only Asian American
writer I knew (and I wasn’t very good). As a comparison, imagine an American culture without African
3.3 The Mainland Relatives: Asian American Writing
American writers, musicians, singers, actors, and painters.
Shawn Wong – Preface to Asian American Literature 163
People of Asian ancestry make up more than half of Hawaii’s population today; many of
the islands’ writers emerged from this heterogeneous group. For the most part, they are
included in Asian American literary studies with scant consideration of Hawaii’s
idiosyncrasies. If Local writing by authors of Asian descent is to be distinguished from
mainland Asian American literature, it is necessary to delineate different themes and
sensibilities. In order to assess these, a sketch of the development of Asian American
literature follows. Hawaii’s Asian writers today are able to write from a much more
secure subject position than their mainland relatives. This is primarily due to the different
legacy they bear. As Hawaii’s Asians are predominantly Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and
Korean, these groups will be considered in the following overview.
In her introduction to An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature,
editor King-Kok Cheung explains: “The umbrella term ‘Asian American’ was coined in
the late 1960s to promote political solidarity and cultural nationalism.” 164 Spurred by
various human rights, anti-war, and Black Power movements, people from different
ethnic Asiatic backgrounds began to promote what Yen Le Espiritu calls ‘Asian
American panethnicity.’ 165 Today, the inherent danger of glossing over inequalities in the
course of consolidating diverse ethnicities is increasingly addressed. Yet, as Cheung
asserts, “Without the initial naming, subsequent institutionalizing, and continuous
contestation over this literature, the many voices that are now being heard might have
remained mute.” She registers a “continuing need to amplify marginalized voices,
163 Shawn Wong (ed.), Asian American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology, New York 1996:
xv.
164 King-Kok Cheung (ed.), An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature, Cambridge 1997: 2.
165 Quoted in Cheung 1997: 4.
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